Amphibians and bats

I mainly focus on human diseases in this class but over the last week I did branch out a little. Some recently emerging diseases I did not discuss were the chytrid fungus affecting frogs and the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats. Both of these are causing serious conservation problems.

The March 2013 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the CDC, has a nice review:

Parallels in Amphibian and Bat Declines from Pathogenic Fungi


Abstract
Pathogenic fungi have substantial effects on global biodiversity, and 2 emerging pathogenic species—the chytridiomycete Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and the ascomycete Geomyces destructans, which causes white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats—are implicated in the widespread decline of their vertebrate hosts. We synthesized current knowledge for chytridiomycosis and white-nose syndrome regarding disease emergence, environmental reservoirs, life history characteristics of the host, and host–pathogen interactions. We found striking similarities between these aspects of chytridiomycosis and white-nose syndrome, and the research that we review and propose should help guide management of future emerging fungal diseases.

Review

We still have to cover influenza but some of you may find this useful for review:

Consider the following thirteen diseases, all of which we discussed, although some of them only briefly.

1. AIDS
2. Bubonic plague
3. Lyme disease
4. Cholera
5. Ebola hemorrhagic fever
6. Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome
7. Measles
8. Marburg hemorrhagic fever
9. Tuberculosis
10. Malaria
11. Polio
12. Influenza
13. Yellow fever

• Four of these disease have vectors. Which are they and what are the vectors?
• Three of these diseases have rodent reservoirs. Which are they?
• Which three of these diseases have exhibited a series of truly global pandemics?
• Which of these disease are essentially incurable? What do these incurable diseases have in common?
• Which of these diseases is caused by neither a bacteria nor a virus? What is it caused by?
• Which two of these disease are transmitted by the fecal-oral route?
• Which two of these diseases are a particular problem to immunocompromised people? Why?
• Which of these disease can be vertically transmitted?
  

Acronymorama

What do the following acronyms stand for and what do they have to do with infectious disease?

• AIDS
  
• BSL
• BSE
• VRSA
• HIV
• HAART
• MDR-TB

Thirteen diseases

Consider the following thirteen diseases, all of which we discussed, although some of them only briefly.

1. AIDS
2. Bubonic plague
3. Lyme disease
4. Cholera
5. Ebola hemorrhagic fever
6. Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome
7. Measles
8. Marburg hemorrhagic fever
9. Tuberculosis
10. Malaria
11. Polio
12. Influenza
13. Yellow fever

• Four of these disease have vectors. Which are they and what are the vectors?
• Three of these diseases have rodent reservoirs. Which are they?
• Which three of these diseases have exhibited a series of truly global pandemics?
• Which of these disease are essentially incurable? What do these incurable diseases have in common?
• Which of these diseases is caused by neither a bacteria nor a virus? What is it caused by?
• Which two of these disease are transmitted by the fecal-oral route?
• Which two of these diseases are a particular problem to immunocompromised people? Why?
• Which of these disease can be vertically transmitted?
  

HIV vaccine?

Okay, how about a review question AND an interesting news article?

There are four fundamentally different ways of making vaccines. What are they and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Reported in New Scientist this week: Fight HIV with HIV: 'safe' virus proposed as vaccine from results reported last month at the 2010 annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Review part 1

Thank you to everyone who has posted here this quarter and thanks for being a great class. Seriously, I have enjoyed teaching the class this quarter, I thought the lectures were nicely interactive - lots of good questions from the audience.

I'll continue to post here up until the final next Friday and I'll be posting some questions for review. I will eventually post some additional exam format questions in the links on the right but I'll also post more general review type questions here. Let's see, here's some simple definitions to get you started. For best value try explaining these to someone else.

What's the difference between:

• A dead end host and a definitive host?
• Reassortment and transformation
• An antibiotic and an antibody?
• A vector and a vaccine?
• A viral swarm and a cytokine storm?
• Antigen shift and antigen drift?